Choi Soon-sil, President Park Geun-hye’s longtime confidante at the center of the corruption scandal, fiercely clashed with Ko Young-tae, her now-estranged associate and alleged “boy toy,” during her trial Monday.
Ko, a former fencing champion who served as a director at Choi’s company The Blue-K, dismissed many of Choi’s claims at court, saying she was deeply involved in the much-disputed fundraising of the K-Sports Foundation and operation of The Blue-K.
“Choi was virtually running the foundations,” Ko said during the criminal trial of Choi and former presidential aide An Chong-bum, who are accused of forcing local businesses to donate to the Mir and K-Sports foundations.
Ko said that Choi had made key decisions from personnel appointments to the fundraising process at the K-Sports Foundation and The Blue-K, Choi's paper company allegedly set up to siphon off the donations.
“Why would I have been sacked if it were my company? I only followed Choi’s orders and received a salary from Choi,” Ko said, disputing Choi’s claim that he was the actual owner of The Blue-K.
Choi's lawyers had a war of words with Ko as they tried to prove that Ko and other officials at the entities plotted to frame Choi and fabricate the evidence.
“Choi has no office in The Blue-K company, is that right?” Choi’s lawyer asked, showing a floor map drawn by a security guard of the building. When Ko denied that, the lawyer asked again, “Are you confident? You should think about it hard.”
Ko fought back, saying, “The floor map doesn’t even make sense. You haven’t been to the office, have you? Choi has her desk, safe and table in her own room in the office.”
This marks the first time the two have faced each other since the scandal broke in October 2016. Ko, who appeared in a gray suit and black coat, barely looked at Choi as he answered questions.
Ko provided detailed testimony on Choi’s involvement in the operation of the entities as well as the dress shop in which Ko manufactured clothes for President Park. He said Choi had covered the rental fees of the offices and she directly paid him a salary and expenses for Park’s items.
As for Choi’s relationship with Park, he said they were very close. President Park was named an accomplice in the alleged extortion of donations from local firms for the Mir and K-Sports foundations.
“Choi visited the presidential office often to deliver her clothes. She treated Park’s secretaries as personal assistants and always told me that she worked for the president out of loyalty,” he said. “In her office at The Blue-K, she was working on something like presidential speeches on her laptop.”
Ko has been a key whistleblower with knowledge of inner workings and Choi’s meddling in state affairs. His revelation about Choi’s editing of presidential speeches in October triggered the scandal that eventually led to Park’s impeachment.
Choi has denied all allegations from her extortion of donations from local firms to her manipulation of power behind the scenes for personal gain.
A woman in the audience in the courtroom suddenly stood up and hurled curse words at Choi and Choi’s lawyers, which was met with applause. She shouted: “Why you are protecting the woman who ruined the country?”
Ko’s appearance came amid his continued absence from the public eye since he offered key remarks implicating President Park and Choi in the alleged wrongdoings during the parliamentary inquiry into the scandal in December. He has remained in hiding and refused to appear at the impeachment trial, citing threats to his own safety.
Ko is the most wanted witness by President Park’s lawyers in her impeachment trial as Park argues she was wrongly framed in the scandal sparked by the 60-year-old Choi’s adulterous affair with the 40-year-old former fencing champion Ko.
Ko, who has been called Choi’s boy toy, allegedly first met Choi in 2006 while working at a “host bar” in southern Seoul. Ko denied the rumors and said he only met Choi through his handbag manufacturing company Villomillo.
The Constitutional Court plans to bring in Ko for questioning as a witness at the 12th hearing of the impeachment trial scheduled for Thursday. It remains unclear whether he will appear.
Earlier in the day, Lee Sung-han, a former secretary general of the Mir Foundation, also testified that the entity was under Choi’s control during the hearing.
“I think Choi ran the foundation,” he said. Lee also agreed that Choi conspired to shift the blame linked to the operation of the Mir Foundation to TV commercial director and Choi's another associate Cha Eun-taek.
Lee earlier revealed that Choi had received files as thick as 30 centimeters from Jeong Ho-seong, a presidential secretary of private affairs, almost every day for review and delivered her instructions through Jeong to the presidential office.
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